I like Swindler, because I've been trying to figure out how to do the Curse-based cards that don't mention curses for a while now. (Hint: What happens when you Swindle a copper?) I also think Coppersmith+Big Money or Courtyard+Big Money would be interesting low-action decks.

Edit: Also Tribute, for "Greatest Card in the World" jokes, especially if, say, Harem+Nobles get flipped.

Those are probably my top two, off the cuff. I'll probably write a strategy article of some sort over the next few days now that the images have been posted.

There's some amazing combos in this set.

I recommend that everyone should play with just the expansion first. That should help ease the downtime and AP that WILL be encountered with the new cards. It's quite a fantastic set on it's own any way, and it will be easy for everyone to see why each set is being released as a stand alone.

If anyone has questions, fire away; I can finally speak freely

Edit: It's also noteworthy that several of the new cards act as variations on everyones favorite "broken" card the chapel.

Swindler looks really interesting. And irritating, which is good! "Here, have a chain stopper for your draw-my-entire-deck deck! Now maybe your turns won't take three times as long as the rest of ours!" "Oooh, you know what your chapel deck could use? How about an early pawn? C'mon, you didn't seriously want that chapel on turn three!"

I love the flavor of the card though. Basically, you go out and buy a wishing well, only to find that there's a steward trapped inside who drank up all the water. Or, you travel to your newly bought harem only to find that the women have put in their two weeks notice and decided to take up adventuring. See, this is why you should have bought that over-priced insurance at the harem dealer.

I'm a little sad there aren't any more cost 6 actions that aren't victory cards. I guess early game, gold is always better, and late game, those are always better?

Coppersmith seems really powerful when I first look at it, then useless when I think about it a bit, then interesting when I think about it some more. I want to say it's really nice, but I have no idea what sort of deck could really benefit from it. Envoy decks?

I definitely like Courtyard. I had said to a friend *yesterday* "Envoy grabs the worst of a set of cards. I want a card that grabs the best of a set of cards!" It seems that Donald beat me to it ^^;

I think my favorite card there is The Baron. Gardens decks are my favorite, and he would be absolutely perfect for that! +1 buy is always handy, but he either gains you an estate or uses an estate you've already got too!

Remember from the base game that if you can't perform one step of an Action, you just skip that step. By my interpretation, you first trash a card, you pick the Curse, and then you have to Gain a card costing 1, which you can't (barring the Bridge), so you just don't!

I'm a little sad there aren't any more cost 6 actions that aren't victory cards. I guess early game, gold is always better, and late game, those are always better?

The Harem always sold out first when played. It's great points. I'll tell you what: I hope other players overlook the Harem while I buy them all (Well at least most of them)

nyren wrote:

Coppersmith seems really powerful when I first look at it, then useless when I think about it a bit, then interesting when I think about it some more. I want to say it's really nice, but I have no idea what sort of deck could really benefit from it. Envoy decks?

Never did find it useful. Perhaps I just didn't have the proper mind set.

Play the Scout & see what's coming up in your deck (obviously replacing any Treasure & Action cards); then you can play the Nobles to either decide to draw cards to get lots of Treasure to spend or actions. Ideally for the latter, you'd want to be able to draw some of the cards you just put back on top of your deck.

Lots of flexibility & options going on here!

For a single card, I like the look of Tribute; you'd get +4 just for causing an opponent to discard two Coppers in the early game !